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Ghost Company on Parnassus Station
+++‘Vanguard’, Inaria system, Core worlds, Sector Deus, Segmentum Obscurus+++ +++094.330.M41+++ Scout Master Geron exhaled softly, as he gripped on to the outer surface of the Gladius-class Frigate ‘Vanguard’, nought but a miniscule speck on the underside of the 1.5 kilometre long vessel. He looked down, towards the world they were orbiting, Inaria, where the Third Company of the Ghosts of Retribution, Geron’s own chapter, had gone rogue and begun slaughtering and pillaging the vast underwater hives of the planet. The Third Company and its Captain, Arcon, had long been a source of discomfort to the chapter, as to a man they were ‘Soulkillers’, a suspicious cult created and led by Captain Arcon. Two years ago Arcon and his company were sent to Inaria to quell a rebellion that had begun due to a food shortage. After a year all contact with them ceased, and now it has become apparent that Captain Arcon and his company intend to take Inaria as their own, and feast upon the souls (hence the cults moniker) of the Imperial citizens living there. The Chapter Master has decided that the rest of the Chapter shall take action against the rogue Company, and has deployed all available forces above Inaria. Unfortunately, there is something between the fleet and the planet, Parnassus station. Harking back to Inaria’s original colonisation, built to compensate for the planets lack of ground-based orbital defences (due to very little landmass on the planet), Parnassus station is a colossal array of defence lasers, Lance turrets and Torpedo tubes, formidably defended with thick armour and numerous void shield generators, an exceptionally tough nut to crack, which, through unknown means, Arcon has brought under his control. Thusly, it was concluded to send the Ghost Company of Revenants in a stealthy assault to neutralise the station. But to make matters worse, Prekan, a member of the Ghost Company and a Soulkiller loyal to Arcon, stole all the suits of Revenant armour in the Armoury and has remained undiscovered. The only remaining suit was the Scout Master’s own, that he kept in his personal quarters, meaning he had to undertake the mission on Parnassus alone. So here he was, latched on to the underside of the ‘Vanguard’, the first step on his way to infiltrating the station. He scanned the space beneath him, his superhuman senses and armours lenses focussed and sensed the slightest of motions in the void. Suddenly, it appeared in his vision, Satellite WF-323, a rusty, derelict communications relay that fell out of use over a dozen centuries ago, scans had shown that it passes within half a kilometre of Parnassus station a few times a day, this was how he would gain entry to the station undetected. The Commander of the ‘Vanguard’ had also noticed the Satellite, and, utilising the ‘Vanguard’s ancient and experienced Machine-Spirit, positioned his vessel perfectly over the asteroid and matched its speed. “Milord, why are we doing this?” The object of the Commander’s enquiry was First Captain Brethorius, one of the few among the Chapter and its serfs permitted knowledge of the Ghost Company’s existence. “That’s classified Commander, all you need to do is get as close to that asteroid as possible and match its speed.” Turning away, Brethorius spoke softly into his Vox: “Geron, we’re approaching the asteroid, prepare yourself...” Geron replied “Understood, inform me when we are at one hundred metres distance.” He then activated his Revenant armour’s cloaking field, a highly advanced and recently re-discovered STC design that was gifted to the Ghosts of Retribution in return for helping recover it, highly expensive, the Chapter only operated a precious few of the suits, and now all but Geron’s had been stolen. Brethorius watched the scanners in the bridge of the Frigate, and relayed the numbers they displayed to Geron: “One hundred and fifty....one hundred and thirty.........one hundred and twenty..............one hundred and ten.................one hundred metres, we’re holding position Geron, on your go....” Inhaling deeply, Geron focussed on the satellite beneath, releasing his grip on the Frigate, he pushed off with his legs with a gentle but firm action. Drifting delicately towards the satellite, Geron spoke into the vox: “Geron away, mission begun, out.” He looked back to the ‘Vanguard’ and saw it begin to speed off, away from him and back towards the rest of the fleet, returning his gaze to the satellite, it got ever closer and closer in his vision. He gently approached the satellite, about 15 metres wide, it was an easy enough target, his feet impacted the satellite and Geron fell to his knees to reduce the impact, the satellite buckled slightly, but ancient manoeuvring thrusters activated and ensured the satellite maintained its course. Taking a firm grip on the satellite Geron began to go over his entire plan in his mind, as he waited for the moment he will pass by Parnassus station. After a few hours, and after Geron had gone over the plan uncountable times, the station began to loom up in the distance, until it filled his entire vision. Inside his helmet a pre-calculated countdown began, indicating the moment to leap, Geron braced himself: “3.....2.....1.....” Once again Geron found himself drifting through the void with no control, however, the station was a target he could not miss, several kilometres in diameter it begun approaching extremely rapidly. Geron locked up his armour joints and awaited the impact. CLANG. Slamming into the surface of the station, Geron checked his armour for damage, fortunately he found none and proceeded to unlock the joints. Pulling himself along the surface, he slowly worked his way towards the nearest access point, one of the many torpedo tubes that pockmark the station. Hauling himself into the tube, he relaxed for a moment against the inside and checked his weapons. One Boltgun and a few magazines of standard explosive bolts, he also carried a Bolt Pistol loaded with heavy armour piercing shells, should he encounter any marines of the 3rd Company, finally, he withdrew his favourite weapon, a slim, long blade, depressing a button on the hilt it crackled with energy as the atomic disruptor field within the power dagger activated, for a moment, it seemed as though a grim smile hovered on Geron’s lips, but it soon faded on his emotionless face. Pushing himself off the inside of the tube he drifted towards the breech, soon he was at the rear, where the large torpedoes are lowered into the tube on enormous crane mechanisms. There was a small hatch at the base of the tube, used for maintenance workers to access the tube for repairs. Unlocking the hatch, Geron passed into an airlock, as soon as he re-locked the hatch, it began pressurizing, as well as gradually introducing artificial gravity. The airlock beeped and notified Geron that pressurisation and gravitation were complete. He carefully opened the hatch leading to the inside, and took his first steps onto Parnassus station. Creeping through the archaic corridors, Geron started to work his way towards the Master Control Room for the stations’ weaponry, the exact location of which Geron had gleamed from ancient blueprints. Completely invisible, he stole through the station like a wraith, only the slightest of taps between the metal floor and his noise-dampening soles betrayed his presence. After what seemed an age of painfully cautious movement, Geron started to hear voices further down, slowing up slightly, he came across a large intersection, ‘Good’, he thought, his objective was only a few hundred feet down the left passage, unfortunately, there were 4 Imperial Guardsmen carrying Lasguns guarding the intersection, and conversing loudly. Stealing silently between them, Geron listened to their conversation: “I’m just saying.....what if those Space Marines were lying to us? They said the others are tainted but they seemed fine to me.” “Dinn, you heard the Governor’s orders, we’re under the command of the Angels of Death, the will of the Emperor, whether we can see it or not doesn’t matter, those bastards down there must be purged, and we have the honour of helping the Space Marines in their task.” Geron felt a pang of pity for these poor men, misled by treacherous Space Marines, they genuinely thought they were serving the Emperor. Realising he had to learn more about the 3rd Company’s actions on the planet, Geron took action. A swift backhand to the face took care of the first guardsman, he crumpled to the ground, knocked out cold. The other 3 froze in confusion, all they had seen was a mysterious force slam their friend halfway across the room. Geron took advantage of this and threw a swift jab into the midsection of another, followed by a relatively light knock on the head, he was soon joining his comrade in unconsciousness. The third guardsman brought up his lasgun, Geron smacked it aside but in his panic the soldier fired it off madly, tearing apart the fourth in a hail of fire. The third stood slack-jawed at the shredded body of his friend, before an impact to the head turned the world black. Geron dragged the 3 limp forms, and the 1 corpse, to a small maintenance access room a few dozen feet down one of the corridors. Using their belts to tie them to piping, Geron waited for them to awake. As fate would have it, the third guardsman, the one who had killed his friend, was first to regain consciousness. After a moment of grogginess, he realised he was restrained and began frantically looking around, whimpering as he saw the mangled corpse nearby. Eventually his eyes settled on one of the shadowy corners of the room, focussing hard, he saw two small, red eye-shaped lights, as they stared back at him. Slowly they rose, and came towards him. He shook with terror as the form of a Space Marine came out of the shadow. “Wha-.....I-......Milord.” The armoured terror snarled back: “How many of you are there on this station.” “I-...um...on the station? Erm...er..about one hundred of us, we came aboard stowed away on a food transporter. Along with three Space Marines.” The Marine remained impassive: “Why do you fight for them? How many of you are there in total?” The guardsman was confused: “They....they are Space Marines? Like you, we are under your command, as dictated by our Governor. We are the Soul Brothers, supporting our Soulkiller masters in whatever they require. And there are many thousands of us, we are the Guardsmen and PDF soldiers who stayed loyal to our masters.” Geron inquired further: “What is happening on the surface?” “We move from sector to sector, keeping the tainted masses entrapped for the Soulkillers to purge.” Geron had heard enough, but before he departed he left the poor, misled soldier a piece of advice: “A word to you and your friends.......don’t leave this station until all of us Space Marines are gone from the system.....there is nothing for you down there but heresy and death.” Leaving the confused Guardsman and his comrades behind, Geron stepped back out into the hall and locked the maintenance room. Re-activating his cloaking field he continued his journey to the weapons control room. With no further mishaps he was soon at the entrance to the room. Listening in at the sealed door, he heard voices inside, in particular, the unmistakeable voice of Power Armour speakers. “Just keep your eyes’ on the scanners, dogs, and consider yourself fortunate we have no loyal comrades capable of operating it!” Daring to inch open the access door, Geron spied one Soulkiller overseeing half a dozen station technicians. With his superhuman senses the Soulkiller instantly noticed the movement: “Who goes there?! Soul Brothers?!......Answer me!!” Stalking over to the door, Boltgun raised, the Soulkiller swung the door open, seeing nought but an empty corridor in front of him, he snorted in irritation and turned back towards the technicians: “What are you scum looking at?! Get back to work!” None were more stunned than the Soulkiller when an enormous hole erupted in his left knee as the armour piercing bolt shattered through it, falling to his knee without so much as a scream, the Space Marine twisted round and aimed down the corridor as the technicians leapt beneath their consoles, but before the marine could so much as pull the trigger the invisible Geron punched it aside, sending it flying out of the Soulkillers hand, and delivered a devastating kick directly into his face. Geron proceeded to pummel his fists into the reeling marine, again and again, until the helmet itself began to buckle and crack and the Soulkillers body went limp. De-cloaking before the technicians raised their heads, Geron aimed his boltgun at them: “Where does your allegiance lie?!” The technicians looked at each other, utterly confused, finally one of them answered: “With you, milord.” Lowering his weapon, Geron motioned to the unconscious Soulkiller: “Where can I put this marine where he will not escape?” The technician who had spoken before motioned to “There’s a storage cupboard over there, but......the door is not secure enough to hold him in.” Geron dragged the Soulkiller into the cupboard, and took off his helmet, Sergeant Morthum, Geron had fought beside him on previous occasions, but now they found themselves as enemies. Setting Morthum’s armour to lock up, he then disconnected the power supply. Geron exited the cupboard and locked the heavy metal door behind him. “He’s immobilised now, if he’s smart he’ll put himself into suspended animation, and we’ll recover him when we want, but for now....keep that door locked.” The technicians nodded: “What are you going to do now milord?” “Is this the weapons control station?” “Yes.” Geron raised his boltgun and took aim at the consoles, when a technician protested: “NO! You cannot milord! You could cause uncontrolled firing, it would overload the weapons and the power core will detonate!” Geron’s stayed his hand, but only for a moment: “This station is preventing us from making planetfall on Inaria, it must be neutralised.” The technician babbled frantically: “Yes but if you please just stop the two Soulkillers on the bridge and free the security complement we can retake control of the station, please milord!” Geron sighed: “Alright then, since I hadn’t planned for this, I’ll need information. Firstly, how do I get to the bridge, and second, how do I go about freeing the security complement?” The relieved technician provided the information without hesitation: “You can get to the bridge by going half a kilometre down that passageway.....” He gestured to one of the passages leading off from the control room: “and then travel up 2 decks by the access stairway, turn right going out of the flight and the bridge is only about 50 metres further. As for the security detail, there’s around a thousand Imperial Guardsmen stationed here at any given time, enough to easily overwhelm the enemy, unfortunately the Soulkillers and their Soul Brothers managed to seal up all their barracks rooms before they could act, unlocking the barracks should be simple enough to perform from the bridge itself.” Geron nodded and headed off down the indicated corridor: “Thank you, you’ll find some lasguns in the intersection I came from, grab them and lay low here until Imperial control is reinstated.” Shutting the control room door behind him, Geron re-activated his armour cloak and set off towards the bridge of Parnassus station. Following the technician’s directions, Geron was soon approaching the bridge, guarding this entrance was 2 more Soul Brothers, thinking fast, Geron jumped up and grabbed on to the hallway ceiling, his powerful hands digging into the metal. Hearing the light clang of Geron’s gauntlets making contact with the ceiling, the 2 guardsmen became alert, hefting their lasguns, they scanned the corridor momentarily, before dropping their guard once more. Clambering along the ceiling, no easy feat in Power Armour, Geron got to the door and knocked sharply on it twice. The guardsmen once more picked up their lasguns and scanned around, when the door slid open to reveal a Soulkiller standing inside: “What is it?” The 2 Soul Brothers were at a loss, one of them spoke: “I...we didn’t knock on the door!” Taking advantage of the confusion, Geron climbed through the doorway and onto the bridge, still on the ceiling, as the Soulkiller shut the door: “Fools! If you so much as touch this door again without having something to report, I’ll feast on your soul myself!” Striding back to the Captain’s chair in the centre of the bridge, the Soulkiller spoke to the helmetless Space Marine sitting in it: “It was nothing Lieutenant, just the idiot guards.” Lieutenant Sevelon shook his head: “I thought I gave enough warning about incompetence in the ranks when I executed the Captain of the station for trying to lie to me, damn mortals will be the death of us Sergeant.” Sergeant Timmian smirked: “At least their souls can be of some use Lieutenant.” “Hah, right you are Sergeant, right you are.” Turning to the bridge crew, Sevelon barked out commands: “Where is the traitor’s fleet at the moment?! Have they made any move since the ‘Vanguard’ retreated?” One of the crew looked up from his monitor and replied fearfully: “They are remaining out of our range my Lord.” Sevelon cackled loudly: “Hahaha, the cowards know they cannot face this station’s defences!” As the Lieutenant and Sergeant were conversing, Geron had lowered himself to the floor and begun silently locking all the doors into the bridge. Creeping up behind Timmian, Geron drew his power dagger, and plunged it down into the joints between the backpack generator and Timmian’s armour, severing the power connection. Suddenly burdened by the heavy armour, Timmian swayed off-balance, Geron kicked low and swept him off his feet, then stamped hard on his head. Turning away from the stunned Sergeant whilst re-sheathing his blade, Geron saw Sevelon raising his bolt pistol, acting swiftly, Geron leapt to the side and rolled away as several bolts were unleashed through the space he had just been occupying. Charging into Sevelon, Geron slammed him to the ground as his bolt pistol flew out of his hand. Though Geron had the powerful advantage of invisibility, Sevelon was an experienced fighter, and could tell that he was dealing with a Space Marine. Thrusting his legs up into Geron, Sevelon propelled him straight up, Geron smashed into the ceiling and tumbled haphazardly to the floor, unable to sustain the trauma, his armour’s cloaking field flickered and died. Drawing his own bolt pistol, Geron lept up and took aim where Sevelon was on the floor, only to find the space empty. Suddenly Sevelon caught Geron with a blistering punch from the side, he had regained composure after the tackle much faster than Geron had anticipated. Sevelon continued his assault and Geron lost his own bolt pistol in the ensuing melee, and Sevelon ripped Geron’s boltgun from it sling, so he drew his dagger and fought back. Geron’s deadly skill met Sevelon’s raw ferocity and massive battle experience as they battled viciously through the bridge, throwing brutal punches and kicks into each other with such superhuman speed and precision that no human could have followed exactly what was happening, Geron’s power dagger left glittering trails in the air as it arced through it, slashing and thrusting with every technique he knew, but Geron’s blade never found more than empty space as Sevelon dodged his every strike. Back and forth they duelled for what seemed to be an eternity. Blood was pouring down Sevelon’s exposed face, and Geron’s eye-lenses were cracked and broken, in a brief lull, he removed his helmet and the two heavily-breathing marines exchanged words as they circled each other: “You can still.......make it out of this.......with some honour.....Sevelon.........surrender now.....Arcon is a traitor.” Sevelon spat at Geron: “No!.......it is you........and your Chapter Master......who are the traitors!” “I am not here......to discuss Chapter politics......I give you one last chance......surrender now.” Sevelon screamed and charged at Geron once more: “NEVER!!!” Geron, anticipating the blind rage of his opponent, sidestepped his enemy’s charge at the last second, slammed his elbow into the back of Sevelon’s head, then swung round and plunged his dagger into his chest. Howling in pain, Sevelon brought his fists into Geron with greater ferocity than ever, chips flying of their armour with each contact, again and again Sevelon struck, ignoring the dagger protruding from one of his hearts. Geron, already exhausted, attempted to block some of the strikes but was cast aside by the crazed brutality of the assault, Sevelon finished the onslaught with a devastating uppercut into Geron’s chin, sending him flying halfway across the room. Geron landed with a crash and slid along the floor, drifting towards unconsciousness as Sevelon staggered over to his fallen bolt pistol. Out of the corner of his eye Geron spied his own fallen weapon nearby, and painstakingly dragged himself towards it as fast as he could. Finally his hand grasped round his weapon and he lifted it to aim at Sevelon, only to be slammed back down by Sevelon’s foot. Geron was kicked hard in the midsection and flipped onto his back, looking up into the barrel of Sevelon’s bolt pistol and his pale, savage eyes. Leaning down towards Geron’s face, Sevelon sneered: “I will enjoy feasting on your soul, lickspittle, and it’s only a matter of time before your Chapter Master is joining you.” Summoning all the strength he had left, Geron slammed aside Sevelon’s pistol with his knee, seized the power dagger embedded in Sevelon’s chest, and yanked it sideways with all his might. Sevelon stood up straight, staring at the colossal tear across his chest that was pouring blood and mangled organs. His face showed no thoughts of pain, all that it portrayed was the realisation that his death was at hand. Staggering back a few paces, Sevelon brought his fist to his chest and spoke to Geron through a mouthful of blood: “I die.......for Chapter and Emperor.” Sevelon toppled to the floor. A fanatic? Definitely. A traitor? Perhaps. But he was a true Space Marine to the very end. Dragging himself to his feet, Geron holstered his bolt pistol and sheathed his dagger, retrieving his helmet from where he dropped it, he placed it back upon his head. Locking up Timmian’s armour, Geron dragged him into a corner of the bridge and turned towards the stunned faces of the bridge crew, who had been desperately trying to stay out of the way of the battling space marines: “How do I free those imprisoned within the barracks?” Seemingly amazed that Geron could even talk, one of the crew stammered back whilst moving towards a panel of monitors: “The-....the console is over here....” Walking over to the console, Geron hit the button the crewmember was pointing to, he then walked to the communications station and spoke into the microphone: “Attention all Soul Brothers, drop your weapons and surrender to the security forces re-taking the station. I repeat, all Soul Brothers, drop your weapons and surrender to the security forces re-taking the station.” The orders reverberated through the stations speaker system, and the vast majority of the Soul Brothers obeyed the words of the space marine, a few put up a fight, but were soon swept aside by the wave of Imperial Guardsmen sweeping through the station. The commander of the Imperial Guardsmen on the station, Colonel Lessay, was the first to enter the bridge, where he found Geron standing next to the body of Sevelon and the bridge crewmembers hurrying out of the door he just came through. Raising his Laspistol, he questioned the marine: “Were you the one who ordered the enemy to stand down?” “Yes. Are you the commander of Imperial forces here?” Lessay lowered his pistol: “I am milord, Colonel Lessay at your service.” Geron stepped towards him: “Well done Colonel, it was fortunate that the barrack doors sustained a locking failure that allowed your men to escape and retake the station.” Colonel Lessay gave a confused look as Geron continued: “Especially impressive was your subduing of three Space Marines, two of which were incapacitated and one killed, one of the incapacitated marines was locked in a storage cupboard within the master weapons control room. The loyalist elements of their chapter will soon be here to retrieve the prisoners and body. I’m glad we could clear up exactly what happened.” Lessay nodded cautiously as he saw the space marine tightening his grip on the dagger attached to his belt: “Crystal clear, milord.” Geron released his grip on his dagger as Lessay turned back to the door he had just come through: “Guardsmen! Get in here and secure these prisoners!” Turning back towards Geron, Lessay was shocked to see nothing was there, the space marine had seemingly vanished into thin air. Deciding not to dwell on this strange occurrence in the middle of several weeks of strange occurrences, he turned back to his approaching men and resumed re-taking control of the station. Exiting the bridge, the now cloaked Geron activated his vox: “This is Geron, verification code 6245-0558-7871, mission has been more than successful, Parnassus station is back under Imperial control. Requesting ‘Vanguard’ docks in order to retrieve two Soulkiller prisoners, one Soulkiller body, and me.” Brethorius’ pleased voice spoke back: “Excellent, ‘Vanguard’ is approaching now. What’s the matter Geron? Don’t want to stick with the original extraction plan?” Geron allowed himself a rare laugh: “I didn’t fancy floating through space waiting for you to pick me up in a shuttle, I’ve seen the way you fly, hahah.” Geron arrived at the docking bay and sat down, awaiting the arrival of the ‘Vanguard’, and whatever mission awaits him on the surface.... Category:Stories Narratives and Fluff